take back powein there's a ne coming. >>rewritinhi for modern man with talent and an incredible story that just got even better. "nightly news" begins w. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

and good evening. followg what was a big day here in washington, th112th congress is now under way,nd there is a new speaker of the house. republican john boehner of oo was todajoined by 10 of his 11 siings. the ten-term congressman from humble beginnings and blue collar roots today became the 53rd speer of the house u.s. history. he received the gavel from now former speaker nancy pelosi,nd in keeping with the gravity of the ceremony, the w speaker's now famous overflowing emotions briefly did just that wh his wife and famy were introduce to the packed chamber. th first day of the new congre is the first official day of divided government d republican conol of the house. now the real work begins. we bin our coverage of all of it tonht with our capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnel

kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. john boehner tked about today's transfer of the gavel as a reminder of how temporarthis por can be. he's been in congress for 20 years, waiting to become m spker. the biggest day of john boehner's career started with a workout at the gym and cameras lined up outside his home. thumbs up and the american people are in charge. >> reporter: the people sent more than 100 new meers to serve in this 112th congress. >> i do ta this obligation freely. >> reporter: including 63 new hoe republican seats. today, children and families were given special permission to be on the house floor. among them, form vice president dan quay, whose son ben is now an arizona congressman. democrats appeared just as eager to get their photos with the new speaker. boehner'trademark tears lled uphen nancy pelosi acknowledged his wife and family. after four years as the nation's first woman speaker of the

house, pelosi listedemocrats' accolishments under her watch. >> with e greatest consur protections in history and passed a song patient's bill of rhts. >> reporter: then turned the page. >> i now pass this gavel and the sacred tru that goes with to the new speaker. god bless yo speaker boehner. [ cheers andpplause ] >> reporter: boehner spoke of both tradition -- >> that cludes this gavel, which accept cheerfully and gratefly, knowing i am but its caretaker. after all, ts is the people' house. >> reporter: -- and changen how congress works, pledging morepenness and lesspending. >> legislators in the public willave three days to read a billefore it comes to a vote. >> repter: across the capitol, where democratremain in charge- >> do you swear that y will support and defe the constitution of the unit

states? >> reporter: vice president biden welcomed 1new senators. 10 of them republicans. a page turned here, as well. fothe first time in 64 years, no member of theennedy family holda federal office. and lebrated today, maryland's barbarmccullski has served longer thaany woman in history, beginning her 25th year in the senate toy. republicans will make largely symbolic moves, reading every word of the constitution on the hoe floor tomorro and next week trying to repeal the esident's health care law, whh certainly won't pass in the nate. brian? >> kelly o'donnell on the hill tonight after a big day there. kelly, tnks. tomorrow, we sit down with an exclusive interview with the new speaker, john boehner. his first interview as speaker. it will air tomorr night here on "nightly news." there are other changes here in washington, like thnew chairman of the house committee onversight and government reform

it's also called the wchdog committee. california republican darrell issas coming across like, well, an ang watchdog. oureport from nbc's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: hs a new cop on the beat. darrell issa, the republic's top watchdog, potentially the obama administration's worst nightmare. even beforthe election, heut president obama on notice, telling rush limbaugh -- >> he's been one of the st rrupt presidents in modern tis. >> reporter: today, a very different tone. >> i've got a present who inherently wants to get along with me so we n agree on ings. >> reporter: but he's laid out an ambitious anda, instigating wikileaks, fannie mae, the stimulus program and the bank bailout. as many as 2 hearings in the fit year. and he's already sent more than 150 letters to industry lobbyist asking which regutions they would like killed?

>> they must be extremely happy to have in the chairman of the committee somee who basically says, come on down, sh me what you don't like. >> reporter:ssa's spokesman maintains that's no different than presidentbama holding a mmit with industry leaders, or consering a chief of staff with ts to business. but sa also plans tosk officials like tom donilon to testify. that reminds veterans of the clinn years of former oversight chairman dan burton when he had issa's job. >> i kno but what i can't derstand is why you can't give us an answer. >> it doesn't matter whether the question is political, ridiculous, if there's a subpna attached to i you're required by law to produce the documents it asks for. >> reporter: the democrats have had the gavel. w the tables are turned. >> theiggest pitfall would be if these investigations are perceived as being witch hunts and political in nure as opposed to focused on substance and policy. >> reporter: andremitchell,

nbc news, washington > and across towat the white house, preparations arunder way for new kind of part two of the obama administrion, with neweople coming in, and we learned today at least one well-known namdeparting. white hoe correspondent vannah guthrie on duty with more from there tonit. savannahgood evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. as wve been reporting all week, there are a lot of comings and goings her first of all, bill dale who is being serioly consideredo be the new white house chief of aff. e former clinton commerce secretary was here today, meeting with the president and senior staff, a decision that could be imminent. and press secretary robert gibbs, as expected, said today will leave like in early february. he wilstill be an outside paid consultant to the white hous but he said today some changes at the top will bring some fresh perspecte. >> i think having new ices and ving fresh voices, some of those voices that are coming back from having taken a cple of years off, are an important

part of this process. i would not trade the rst day i've had here for ny of the best ds that you mightave in another job. >> reporter: walso learned today that the president will name the replacement for larry summers, that top economic adviser on friday. the ading contender said to be gene spuing. >> savannah guthrie at the white house tonight. savannah, thanks. toull this all together, e moderator of "meet the press," david greg wri and our chief ite house correspondent chuck todd, both with us here in the studio. david, to begin th, the new speaker, john boehner, was it me or was there a lot of conciliatory language in his speech, which by the way was shorter as he came into office an nancy pelosi's was in leavg office. >> i think y're right, i think there s. pa of it was the emotion of the y. he's an emotional guy. that's all going to end al fast. the cross currents right n are within the republican party. they're en bigger tha what's

ing to happen with the democr party. you're going to see anmmediate vote on health care repeal and off we go. republicans are going to go after the obama agenda. they're going to go afr spending. they're going to go after e debt and they've got to deal with the tea party, lealone a democratic whiteouse. >> chuck todd, rog robert gibbs may now be t happiest man in washington. the exession, spend more time with your family, sometimes a euphemism, but he has a young faly and has had a grueling job. elsewhere at the white house, looking for a brand name nager perhaps to come. >> this bill daley thing seems to be moving quickly. uld be as early as tomorrow or maybe later this week. but it's gng to transform thgs a little bit. this is going to be sobody -- by the way, bill dey and the president, despite the daley name and thehicago connections, they don't personally he much of a relationship. that's part of the reason why this has beea slower process than mbe folks thought. me thought bill daley would have been named weeks ago, but the two are trying to get to know each other. but he's going tbring a little different nagement style than

rahm emanu even did, spending as much time focused on outside democratic officials outside of washington. the first two ars of the obama presen were about running washington. these xt two years are about tting re-elected and being more responsive outside of washington. >> chuck todd, we'll look for your tomorrow morning on msnbc. david gregory, sunday on "meet the press." our thank for leting us borrow your home. thanks, gentlemen. as we said earlier, also here in washington, tonight there's been a leak regarding a leak. while it wasn't quite due to be out yet, theinal report ordered by the white house finding fault and assessing blame for the huge oil spill o louisiana in 2010 is now out. and the is plenty of blame to go around the oil industry. our chief environmental affair corresndent anne thompson is here in waington with us tonight. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brn. the commission blames the disaster on whatt calls a failure of industry management. it says nine disions made on

the deep water horizon rig saved timeut actually increased risk. among them, desions involving the cement and the equipment used in the well. it also cites the nal test of that well, the negative pressure test, and it says it was sread, and that s a major contributing factor to the explosion that killed 11 workers d coated the gulf coast in oil. in an exclusive interview this afternoon, commission co-chair william riley says all three companies, bp, transocean and halliburton, bear sponsibility. >> three companies, which are among the largest in the world, which are omnipresent in virtuallall of the oil bearing as around the wod, had severe problems,hich suggest to me if they have them here, theyrobably have them elsewhere. therefore, it's problem the entire indtry should pay atntion to. >> reporter: most of all, the commissionays this accident wapreventable. but it could happen again unless

the indury and government regulators te significant steps to make deep water drilling ser. brian? >> anne thompson with wh is a brking environment story tonight here iwashington. anne, thanks. a big mystery inhe natural world has shifted overseas. more dd birds have turned up. this time in sweden, just days aftethousands of bir fell from the sky in this country. first in arkansas, tn in louisiana. thbirds found in sweden, about 50 of em so far, are called jack dawes. one news website points out inoth the arkansas and sweden cases, there were firewos bere the birds were found. others, however, don't buy that theory at all. in both cases, wre told the weather was humid and cold. experts here and overseas are still working, tryinto nail down what's at the root of this mystery that so ma people are talking about. thexplosive growthf china as a world player and a

world power noapparently includes the developnt of a stealth fighter. aviation blogs have been covering it closely and publisng pictures, though they've all been blocked fm the b in china itself. 's a single pilot twin engine prototype, apparently in the preflight testing stage. it borrows aappearance from many american made fighters and it'sbig, about the size of the old cold war era f-111 j. when "nightly news" coinues from washington in a moment, the debate ovean effort to change an american classic by mark twain. is it possible it's outdated for today's times and today's school later, the story that rocketed arod the web. a homeless man with a gift who needed a break. tonight, we've got good news. needed abreak. tonight, we've got good news. had a heart attaccaused by a completely blockedrtery, another heart attack cod be lurking, waiting to strike. a heartttack that's caused by a clot,

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you may have heard, there's a big debate over an americ classic that had been required reading for generatns of american students. mark twain's "adntures of huckleberry fi" now there's a new version th leaves out one particular word that is used more than 200imes in the original work. nbc's mike taibbi has more on the controversial editing of this american masterpiece. >> reporter: it's the rich tal of t adventures and friendships shar by two characters, one white, one black, in the pre civil war south. but because they use the n word, the booknd companion stories ofom sawyer, have often made the american library association's list o the most frequently band american classics, alongside "to kill a

mocking bird" and "of mice and men." now professor allen gribbon, a twain scholar, is releasing a neversion with the n word replaced, 218 times with the word "slave." >> my students do not read mark twain in theipublic scho education and this might rectify at. >> ain't going to find my remainders. >> no, no. >> reporter: hollywood has offered sanitized versions and the version of the book has drawn support. >> i think the likeliho of teachers using it in a classom might enhanced given that particul word is out. >>eporter: but professor me lessa harris said the original book, with that toxic word in ct, should be studied for the lessons twain intended. >> there can be camaraderie without uality, that there are these challenging relationships. that's just what the bk is asking us to do. >> reporter:ome opponents of political correcess applaud the idea, making the masterpiece more widely available but say

altering the tt isn't the way to do it. welcome mcgowan, autho of "coloring the news," says prsuring the book banners mas more sense. >> how can we have a cand discussion about race if you can't read bookshat have the words that reflect the antagoni? >> reporter: questions on the dete once again as huck and jim trel our way one me time. mike taibbi, nbc news, new york. up next here tonight, how spilled coffeen the cockpit of a jumbo jet set off some major consequences of juo jet set off major consequenc.

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woman: so we can have the kind of retirement want. now, you know how this works. just stay on the line. oh, yeah. fideli investments. turn here. "the new york post," not known a big friend of the obama white house, took a very public, very personal swg at e president on the front page this morning, showing mr. obama on vacatioin a polo shirt, shorts, hat, sunglasses d flip-flopsn hawaii, asking if the leader of thfree world should dress like that, even on vacation?

then inside the newspaper we other presidents who have been deemed even worse cation fashion offenders by some. inuding george w. bush in blacsocks with the pridential seal, and black crocks. president clinton in let's call them period shorts, and richard nixon trying to dodge the ean war in his shoes and socks. more royal wding details are out, includingome important details for the uk audience, including the fact that kate middleton will arrive at the cerony by car, but the couple will depart by horse and carriage. the queen will hosthe ception. prince charles is throwing a kind of after party, a dinner and dancing afterwards. all costs, eept for security, are being paidy the royal family and the middletons. no honeymoon planseleased. starting in march, about 5 llion americans ery day will notice a change in what has become one of the most

ubiquitous american consumer oducts of our time, the starcks logo is changing. arbucks is keeping the sea siren woman wi the flowing hair but droppinthe words from its logo. theyay it's a more streamline look that better reflects their expansion and theroducts beyond coffee and into markets beyond the u. andoffee iseing blamed for the grounding of a jumb jet. the pilot of a united 777 wide body from chicago to frankfurt, rmany, had to make an emergency landing inanada monday nightfter he dropped s coffee on the plane's radio, whh then triggered a radio squawk that signals a hijacking inrogress. united would only admit to a communations issue, and the flight's 255assengers were eventuallyaken back to chicago and put on another plane to germany. up next ase continue here tonight, a stunninreversal of

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a lot of us saw it and were touched by it. a very compelling story about very compelling man. a homeless man in ohio, who has survivedome bad times, and he's come out the other end and he's been walking around wh something of a gift for years. which you'd onlynow once you talked thim and heard his voice. tonit, our own kevin tibbles picks up t story of the man with the golden voice. >> reporter: just another panhandler by the interchang but his sign said, i have a god-given gi of voice. so the reportefrom "the columbus dispatch" rolled wn his window. >> say something with that gat radio voice. >> when you list to nothing but the best of oldies, you're listening to magic 98.9. >> reporter:ithin hours, that video went viral, more than 5 million hits on youtube alone. >> i shoot a lot of thingand nothing has quite stuck ke this has. >> rorter: the man in the video is 52-year-old ted williams from brooklyn, new york, homeless ten years. he says he always wanted to be a

oadcaster, but -- >>lcohol and drugs and a few other things became part of my life. >> reporter: clean now f two years, williams says he somehow living and beggi by a columbus highway. but no more. >> eve weekday morning. >> perfect, man. >> rorter: from the side of the road to inside the sdios local radio, where many callers offered willia employment. >> we would like toffer you a voice package of up to $10,0 contract. >> reporter: even a mortgage. i just didn't know anything like this would happen. >> reporter: one call camerom 150 miles up the highway, from the nba's cleveld cavaliers, who offered him a job. >> we loved his voice d story and our biggest prioritys to get him in here. >> reporter: some people say lifes a highway. well, for the moment any way, ted williams is the fast lane. >> it's like zero to 100 miles per hour in aboua second. >> we'll be back with more rig aftethese words.

>> reporter: with a voice like that, no doubt he will. kevin tibbles,bc news, chicago. >> more on his great story tomorrow morning on "today." for us, for now, that's our broadcast fothis wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we're reporting tonight fromur nbc news washington bureau. we hopto see you right back here tomrow evening. good night. -- captio by vitac -- for years ago, he wasn't worri about retirement. he'd et to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutis for our military,